Mengmei Leng murder: Derek Barrett to be sentenced for assaulting and murdering his niece

Justice Peter Johnson set down a sentencing hearing in Sydney on 24 November.

A former IT worker who admitted to indecently assaulting and murdering his niece before dumping her naked body in a New South Wales, Australia, blowhole last year will face a sentencing hearing next month, the NSW Supreme Court said on Friday (6 October).

In August, Derek Barrett, 28, pleaded guilty to the stabbing murder of the Chinese student Mengmei Leng, 25 also known as Michelle Leng.

The student was in contact with her friends until late that night, before her phone and social media accounts fell silent. The University of Technology, Sydney, graduate student had told her friends that she was headed to the Myer department store in George Street for an afternoon of shopping.

Homicide detectives had trawled through evidence, including CCTV footage around the national park and police divers retrieved items from the water to determine how she was dumped more than 100km from Sydney's central business district, where she was last in contact with her friends. Her body was recovered three days later at the popular tourist spot, Snapper Point.